Diner Faces Backlash After Owner Yells at Toddler

Darla Neugebauer said she attempted to get the family to quiet the girl down or leave. Afterwards, she slammed her hands on the counter and told the girl to be quiet.

The owner of a Maine diner says she's not sorry for yelling at a 2-year-old child for crying in her restaurant because it got the girl to be quiet.

In a Facebook post which has since been deleted, Darla Neugebauer, owner of Marcy's Diner, wrote that the child's parents ordered three pancakes for the child and then didn't feed them to the girl, causing her to cry loudly.

Neugebauer said she attempted to get the family to quiet the girl down or leave. Afterward, she slammed her hands on the counter and told the girl to be quiet.

"Life's full of choices and you've got to live with all of them. I chose to yell at a kid, it made her shut up, which made me happy, it made my staff happy, it made the 75 other people dining here happy, and they left, they may never come back, other people may not come in," she told necn partner WCSH. "Their loss really."

Neugebauer said she stands by her actions, and the diner's Facebook page has gotten messages of both support and criticism.

The mother of the child wrote on Facebook that anyone with young children should understand that crying is normal after waiting a long time for food.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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